Data availability

When your dataset is published, the metadata will be always immediately publicly visible on Zenodo. This includes details of the data fields, the spatial scope, the date range and the like.

You will also need to set the dataset access rights (see here). In general, as much data as possible should be submitted as Open access but the framework supports two alternative access models provided by Zenodo:

Embargoed data

If you want to restrict access to the data while you work on papers, then you can specify an Embargo period. The organisation you submit to will likely set a maximum embargo period, which they should communicate to you. The metadata for embargoed datasets will still be visible, so that researchers can see that the data exists but any data files will only become available once the embargo date has passed.

Obviously, you can choose to provide embargoed data to other researchers within the embargo period. If researchers contact the organisation you submit your data to for access to data during the embargo period, they should always pass the request on to you.

Restricted data

There are possible rare cases where a dataset may be published as a Restricted dataset. You must contact your organisation's data manager in advance to explain why you think restriction is appropriate: they should never publish a restricted dataset without discussion.

Restricted datasets must provide a set of access conditions, which will be visible on Zenodo along with the dataset metadata. Zenodo provides a link to request access to restricted datasets: these will come first to your organisations data manager but they will then always contact the original data owners before permitting access.

Altering the access rights

It is possible to alter the access rights of a published dataset, so if you want to alter the access rights of a dataset, for example to release an embargo or to remove restrictions, then contact the data manager of the organisation you submitted the dataset to.

Data curation

All of the data submitted to a particular organisation is published through a single Zenodo account owned by the organisation. This central account is purely used for data curation so that datafiles can always be accessed, records can always be updated and so that there is a final point of contact for data. This helps to ensure the long-term availability and maintenance of the organisation's data repository.

This curation account for the collection is entirely separate from the authorship and ownership of datasets: the citation for the data will always be to the original set of authors provided in the metadata.

Embargoed or restricted data will never be made available within the embargo period or without discussion with data authors. Data authors will always be consulted about issues arising with their datasets.

safedata at the SAFE Project

For details of the SAFE project's data availability polices see here.